


Midnight Lullaby

by twilighteve



Series: Paranatural Hogwarts AU [4]
Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Singing, night terror, pnat hogwarts, pnat hogwarts au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 17:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6125164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilighteve/pseuds/twilighteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four kids went to have a sleepover together. And in the middle of the night, Max screamed. Isaac, Isabel, and Ed tried to calm him down.</p><p>Pnat Hogwarts AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Lullaby

When Isaac received a letter from Zoey, he almost thought that she sent it to the wrong person.

But that couldn’t be. The name on the envelope was clearly his, complete with the dorm he was staying in and everything – information that he knew Max had shared with his family. With a shrug, he took the envelope, noting that the owl that delivered it wasn’t Max’s or the school’s. Remembering that the Puckett’s could be pretty eccentric at time, he supposed it wasn’t a stretch that it was the family pet. The owl stared at him expectantly when the letter was safely in Isaac’s hands, and he tossed it a treat it deserved. It gulped the treat and gracefully took off.

So the Puckett Owl was more polite than most school owls. It was surprising.

Isaac weighed the manila envelope, wondering why it was heavier than the usual letter, and opened it just as Dimitri glanced at it. “Who’s that from?”

“Max’s sister,” Isaac admitted. “I have no idea why.” He ignored Dimitri’s raised brow and pulled the paper out. The first line drew his attention immediately.

_DO NOT TELL MAX I SENT THIS LETTER TO YOU._

Isaac glanced to the Slytherin table, where he spotted Max happily gorging pancakes. He shifted so that he would seem less suspicious, even though he knew nothing could seem less suspicious than someone reading a letter, considering that everyone in Hogwarts would receive a letter from their parents for at least once in the entire school year.

He studied the letter closely. The first line was written in big, big letters using a red crayon, clearly designed to capture his attention as soon as possible.

Well, it was successful.

The rest of the letter was written in black ink, and clearly written by someone who wasn’t used to write on unlined paper. Zoey’s penmanship went up and down and up again and down again. He read the content inwardly,

_Hiya Isaac! Sorry about that one red sentence. I need to make sure you don’t tell Max, because he’s an idiot sometimes. And Dad actually wanted to write this but he’s excessively weird and hard to understand sometimes so I’m the only one who can._

Isaac almost burst out laughing at that. There was some kind of twisted humor in how out of all members in the Puckett household, the youngest one was most likely the most responsible.

_Anyway, I don’t know if you’ve already figured this out, but Max gets nightmares. Sometimes they turn into night terrors. Max doesn’t like people knowing, but you sorta figure that you’d need help with this kind of thing. But Max is an idiot who doesn’t want others to know._

_He talks about you and Isabel and Ed a lot, so I kinda feel like I’ve known you myself. And I think out of you three you’re the best one for this. Obviously you’re more responsible than them, Max included. I mean you’re in different dorms, but better this than nothing, you know?_

_Anyway, when Max gets a night terror, don’t wake him up. I mean it! Dad did once and Max straight up punched him in the face and broke his glasses, and Max can’t even remember it. What you need to do is pat him in the head and run your fingers through his hair and sing him that one lullaby. _Hush, Little Baby _? Do you know the song? I put it a cassette and a small player in the envelope but I don’t know if it’ll work. Max said Hogwarts is allergic to tech._

_And playing that recording won’t work, it has to be someone actually singing. We’ve tried._

_I hope you can do this for Max. I mean I know, it’s awkward singing to your friend. Even I feel weird singing to Max sometimes. But you know, it’s better feeling awkward than seeing him thrashing in his bed._

_Thanks a lot, Isaac. Me and Dad appreciate this a lot. Max too, I’m sure, but I don’t think he’s gonna tell you that._

_Hoping that you can sing,_

_Zoey._

Isaac put the letter face-down on the table and reached into the envelope, pulling out the cassette player that Zoey mentioned, noting that the cassette was already inside. It was one of the smaller, portable players that was pretty much ancient, but probably the only more modern piece of technology that would be able to function well in Hogwarts. Hopefully.

He glanced at Max, who was still munching on pancakes – probably his second serving, judging from the amount of food he had on his plate. He never would have thought that Max had night terrors. Then again, he didn’t sleep in the same room as him. He needed to think of a way to deal with one of those night terrors himself, since he wasn’t sure he could trust anyone in Slytherin with the information other than Professor Zarei herself, but he didn’t really want to tell her about it. Besides, the only one that he knew for sure shared the same dorm room as Max was Stephen, and Max probably wouldn’t be happy with the hyena-slash-boy knowing about his sleeping conditions.

He stuffed the letter and cassette player back in the envelope and threw it into his bag. He had time to figure this out.

* * *

 

As it turned out, opportunity came in the form of Isabel and Ed and their bouts of craziness.

“Let’s have a sleepover together in one of the unused classrooms tonight!”

Isabel threw the idea with big eyes that twinkled with excitement just as they were walking to their History of Magic class. She was practically bouncing with anticipation, and Ed wasn’t much better, grinning from ear to ear next to her and shaking his hands up and down as if trying to burn off some excess energy.

“Excuse me, what?” Max threw her a look. “A sleepover?”

“Yeah! It’ll be fun!”

“And here I thought this week would be one of the more peaceful ones,” Max sighed. “Clearly, I thought wrong.”

“But a sleepover, tonight?” Isaac asked incredulously. “It’s school night, Isabel.”

“Sleepover is sleepover no matter what time of the week it is!” Ed retorted immediately.

“We’ll get little to no sleep,” Isaac protested.

“Who cares? The fun will be worth it!”

“Not if you have Baxter’s class the next morning,” Max deadpanned.

The four winced together. Professor Baxter was jumpy at best. They had learned what the teacher would do when seriously irked, and that had raised their level of respect and fear of her considerably.

“Why don’t we just do it on the weekend?” Isaac piped up.

“What’s this?” Isabel stared at him in surprise. “Isaac agreed with the sleepover idea!”

“What’s wrong with that?” Isaac asked in confusion. It wasn’t like this was the first time he agreed to one of her crazy ideas. Besides, someone needed to keep an eye on them, and since he was basically the only one who was bothered enough to even glance at their school rules, he had to be there so that they could at least _bend_ it a little.

“But you’re the Mister Obey Rules here!” Isabel cried, gesturing at him wildly.

“Is he possessed by something?” Ed whispered loudly to Max.

“You tell me, you were in the same class as him last period,” Max whispered back.

“Guys, come on,” Isaac sighed.

Jokes aside, the four agreed to have the barely legal sleepover that weekend in a classroom Isabel found with Ed during one of their midnight exploration, which was located on the same floor as the library, only in a more secluded place. Despite being worried about getting caught, Isaac found himself looking forward for it, and he was sure that Max was, too, though he veiled it with his usual sarcasm and wit. Weekend was only two days away, thankfully, so it wasn’t a long wait.

On his spare time, Isaac made sure to play the recording of the song Zoey sent him. He knew _Hush, Little Baby_ , of course. He didn’t exactly remember all the lyrics, though, so he knew he needed to listen to it.

When he hit play, Isaac heard the voice of a man that he distinctly recognized. Then, with a start, he realized it was Mr. Puckett’s. He wouldn’t have pegged the man to be the singing type, but this wasn’t half bad. Pretty good, even. The voice was clear and nice to the ear.

And then a woman’s voice joined Mr. Puckett’s, and Isaac was at first confused. The voice was soft, kind, and there was a hint of mischief in it. Even through the recording, Isaac could hear the laugh in her voice. But when the two voices sang together in a surprisingly harmonious duet, Isaac understood. The voice was the late Mrs. Puckett’s.

He didn’t know why the Puckett’s have a recording of the couple singing together, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. What he was sure of was that all remaining members of the family missed Mrs. Puckett dearly. It was shocking how one could feel their loss over a simple cassette, even more so when the person in question didn’t even know Mrs. Puckett himself.

Isaac sighed and replayed the song again.

* * *

 

Isaac stared at the piles of mattresses, blankets, and pillows in equal parts awe and confusion. “Who are going to use all of those?”

“Us, of course!” Isabel grinned from ear to ear, practically perspiring excitement and glee. “Isn’t this great? Ed got the house elves to help pushing the tables and chairs to the wall and bring all these here. He even managed to smuggle food!”

“Is this a sleepover for four or twenty?” Max muttered to Isaac, just as confused.

“Hey, you told us about Muggle sleepover! We just wanted to recreate that!” Isabel protested.

“ _Muggle_ sleepover?” Max repeated. “Are you saying that you wizards have completely different kind of sleepover?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never done it with my wizard friends before,” Isaac shrugged. Both he and Max then turned to Ed and Isabel, eyes inquiring.

“We don’t know either,” Ed replied lightly.

“Gramps never let us do that sort of thing,” Isabel explained. “Boring old man.”

“So we’re gonna do everything… Muggle style!” Ed grinned and started drawing in the air with his wand, creating luminous neon fireworks surrounding the word _Muggle_ complete with sparkles around it. He stepped back and nodded proudly at his masterpiece before allowing it to dissipate. Magically drawing things in thin air was pretty much his specialty.

“Well, this better be good then,” Max shrugged and grabbed a bag of marshmallows before flopping down on a mattress, chomping.

“This will, this will,” Isabel assured, flinging herself to the mattress next to Max’s. “So. What do we do?”

Max gave her a look.

“Hey, you weren’t clear on the details, buddy,” Ed claimed the mattress next to Isabel’s, across of Max’s.

Isaac laid stomach-down on the remaining spot between Max and Ed. “I guess we can do whatever.” Then his eyes lit up. “Hey, what about a pillow fight?”

“Dude, you don’t _ask_ people to have a pillow fight,” Max protested. “You just _start_ it.”

“Well excuse me, I’m not sure if these two even know what pillow fight – “ Isaac’s words were cut off when Ed shoved a pillow to his face. He cried out as he wrenched the pillow away from his face and grabbed another to hit Ed with.

Isabel barked a laugh. “Come on, guys, don’t leave me out!” She grabbed another pillow and joined the brawl Isaac and Ed were already tangled in.

“Max, come on!” Isaac gestured to Max, beckoning him to join.

He popped a marshmallow to his mouth instead. “Nah. I’m all good here. Watching you guys is fun enough.”

“Are you scared of losing?” Ed taunted. “Cause you just might!”

“Nope, I just don’t really feel like joining,” Max answered, completely unruffled. “Ooh, is that Apple Thang? Gimme that…”

“You’re just going to sit back and eat? Where’s the fun in that?” Isaac protested.

“It’s plenty of fun! Besides, I can’t just leave all this delicious stuff lying around in here – oomph!” any word he wanted to say was cut off by the pillow Isabel had thrown with incredible precision to his face. He fell to the mattress from the impact, dropping the box of Apple Thang but somehow managing to hold on to the bag of marshmallows.

“Yeah, well,” Isabel sighed and took another pillow, patting it up and down. “With that kind of reflex, I doubt you’d be able to win a pillow fight.”

“That’s it!” Max closed the bag of marshmallows and tossed it aside before grabbing both the pillow Isabel threw at him and his own that he had put on the bed. “You want a pillow fight? Then come on!”

And all of a sudden, the four of them were screaming and laughing, limbs tangling and flailing as they hit and threw pillows to one another. Most of the time they didn’t even know who was hitting who. Max had long since lost his cap in the mess, and Isaac had noted that Ed’s glasses were crooked, though he didn’t seem troubled by it.

Somehow, Max, Isabel, and Ed had formed an alliance and were cornering Isaac. The three had identical predatory grins, holding a pillow in their hands and ready to throw them at Isaac. He wasn’t planning to lose so easily, though. He had a pillow in each of his hands and even had one between his teeth. In terms of ammos, they were evenly matched. And Isaac had watched enough ninja anime to know what he should do – throw the two pillows like ninja stars at his enemies’ faces and use the last one like a sword to finish off the last one. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. He should let them approach, make them think they had the upper hand –

Isabel jerked. “I hear something,” she whispered, loud, urgent. “Someone’s coming.”

Then Isaac heard it too. The sound of footsteps coming closer. The four children exchanged looks for a moment before they bolted, dropping the pillows the ground as they ran to the storage closet at the back of the class. They crammed themselves to the small space and peeked outside, heart pounding, afraid to make the smallest of noise.

For a moment, nothing happened. And then the door creaked open. Someone stepped in, clad in a dark robe and holding a wand with its tip lit up with an illuminating spell.

Professor Garcia scratched his head. “I could’ve sworn I heard something,” he muttered, looking around the room. Isaac felt his heartbeat speeding up when the man paused to stare at the closet they were hiding, but he said nothing and continued sweeping the room. He then frowned. “Did Boss Leader turn this room into some sort of sleeping equipment warehouse?” He shook his head and swept the room with his eyes once more before walking out, pulling the door close behind him.

Isaac gave a soft sigh of relief and moved to push the closet door open, but Max forced the door close again. “He might just want to trick us so that we get out in the open,” he hissed.

“Don’t be silly,” Isabel hissed back, but she, as well as the rest of them, jumped in shock when suddenly the door of the room was flung open and banged against the wall as Professor Garcia jumped in with a loud ‘ha!’. They froze in their place, watching the teacher hummed and scratched his head as he straightened.

“I guess it was just a false alarm then,” Professor Garcia shrugged and walked away, once more closing the door behind him. This time the kids listened carefully after his footsteps, noting how the sound when farther and farther still until they couldn’t hear it anymore. Only then did they breathed a collective sigh of relief and pushed the closet door open and spilled to the floor.

“No more pillow fights,” Max groaned from where the floor.

“I second that,” Isabel muttered.

“Whose dumb idea was that again?” Isaac asked. Ed laughed at that, and his laugh sparked a series of chortles of giggles from the rest of the group. They dragged themselves to the mattresses, desperately muffling their laughs with their hands, rolling there and waited until the fit passed.

“We should do this again sometime,” Isabel sighed, rolling on her mattress.

“We need to make sure not to get caught though,” Max muttered, turning pillows on the floor in search for his cap. When he found it, he jammed it to his head.

The four lied on their respective mattresses, chatting in hushed voices and munching on the snacks they had. The night wore on, and Isaac honestly couldn’t remember half what they were talking about. The impressions that were left in his mind was Isabel’s red, excited comments, Ed’s fresh green bouts of creative addition, and Max’s dark, dark, brooding sarcastic humor.

“Physical-slash-magical-combat isn’t a thing, Isabel!” Isaac argued with the girl, though inwardly he wondered how they even got to the topic.

“It _too_ is!” she retorted easily.

“Psst, guys, tone it down!” Ed hissed.

“Max, tell him that it’s a valid thing!” Isabel dropped her voice to a whisper, turning to Max, but closed her mouth with a snap and stared. “What the heck. Asleep already?”

“Should we draw on his face?” Ed pulled his wand out.

“Lay off, Ed, we’ll probably be asleep soon too,” Isaac scoffed.

“Aw, you’re no fun!” Ed whined, but put his wand down. “Hey, pass me the Apple Thang. Since Max won’t eat it, I might just as well finish it.”

They chatted again, softer this time, none of them wanting to wake Max up. Slowly, sleep began to coil its inescapable hold on them and pulled them under with promise of rest and dreams. Isaac felt his eyelids growing heavier by each passing second and laid his head on the pillow, still holding on to the ongoing conversation, though all three of them were already slurring, slowly succumbing to the sweet lull of sleep.

A soft moan pulled Isaac away from the sleepiness that took hold of his body. He jerked upright, suddenly fully awake again. He stared at Max in alarm.

The boy was starting to pant, and his hands gripped on the sheets of his bedding like a lifeline. Carefully, Isaac pulled the cap Max still wore and placed it aside, frowning when he saw Max’s face contorting painfully, brows knitting together and teeth gritted. He was almost as pale as the white sheets he was sleeping on, and sweat had begun to roll down his temple.

“Isaac? What’s wrong?” Isabel asked, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. “I thought you were falling asleep already.”

“Why are you staring at Max like that?” Ed asked the boy, genuinely confused.

Max moaned again, and the two’s attention went to him immediately.

“Max?” Isabel called.

“Is this a nightmare?” Ed asked, standing up and walking to Max’s side. “Max, hey…” he shook Max’s arm before Isaac could warn him not to.

“Wait, that’s not – “

Then, without warning, Max screamed loudly, thrashing and flailing, slapping Ed’s face hard enough to send him tumbling. Isabel squeaked and held him down immediately, and Ed followed her example.

“What the – Max!” Isabel yelled at Max’s face, but the boy didn’t hear it. Couldn’t. Isaac knew, from the way Max thrashed as though he was chased by an enormous monster and how he screamed – wordless, but helpless, pitiful, almost as though he was trying to get someone to hear him, to help, because he couldn’t escape the monster on his own. Perhaps ever. The monster was within him, taunting from beneath the surface of his dreams, terrorizing him with whatever it had.

And Isaac was at a loss. Because if Max’s enemy was within, how could he fight it from the outside?

His hands moved back, frantic to search for anything, any item that might help, when his fingers brushed the bag he brought. He stared at it for a while, hand automatically opening it, and he peered inside. The sight of a familiar envelope and a cassette player jerked him back to reality, and he felt like slapping himself for his stupidity.

He turned and slid down, stopping just inches from Max, who was still thrashing. He grabbed Max’s head and pushed it down the pillow, patting it roughly and running his fingers on Max’s strangely fluffy hair, before he began singing, “ _Hush, little baby, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird…_ ”

“Singing?!” Isabel all but roared. “All this thrashing, and you’re singing to him?!”

Isaac ignored it and went on with the song. “ _And if the mockingbird won’t sing, Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring._ ” He knew his singing was horrid, all over the place, discordant. He might as well be screaming the death metal version of the nursery rhyme and he doubted anyone would be able to tell. But he kept singing as best as he could, running his fingers through Max’s hair, because if they wanted to calm Max down this was the only way they could do it.

“ _And if that diamond ring turns brass, Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass…_ ”

But it was working. Slowly, Max stopped thrashing, and the colors returned to his face. His ragged breath calmed and the pained frown unraveled.

“ _And if that looking glass is broke, Mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat. And if that billy goat won’t pull, Mama’s gonna buy you a cart and a bull._ ”

As Max calmed, so did Isaac’s singing. The notes and the words began to sync on their own and created the music they were supposed to sound. It no longer sounded discordant or forceful. Isaac stopped holding Max’s head down and ran his fingers more calmly, as though caressing a baby’s head, though Max were still turning his head left and right. He kept singing, noting how Max calmed with each passing word.

Both Isabel and Ed stepped back, releasing Max and allowing Isaac to work his song. “It actually worked?” Isabel mumbled.

“ _And if that horse and cart fall down, you’ll still be the sweetest baby in town._ ”

Isaac blinked. Only then did he realize that he had reached the end of the song. He kept studying Max’s face, determining if he should sing again or if the boy was calm enough to leave alone, but no longer than three seconds after the last word was sung, Max grimaced again. Afraid that he would start thrashing again, Isaac quickly sung the whole song from the start once more. By the time he was done, Max was already curled, deep in sleep, without any signs of his previous episode safe for his crumpled clothes and the sweat in his face. He turned in his sleep and sighed, muttering slurred words that sounded suspiciously like “thanks, mom”.

Isaac sighed and dropped himself on his mattress, suddenly feeling very tired and needing much, _much_ , deep undisturbed dreamless sleep.

“You knew that would work,” Isabel pointed out, her words somehow sounding accusatory.

“Yeah,” Isaac admitted.

“How?”

Isaac took the letter Zoey sent him and handed it to Isabel, though Ed snatched and opened it first. “Zoey sent that to me,” he told the duo.

“What!” Isabel cried as she read. “Isaac, more responsible than us?! Zoey, I thought we were friends!”

“Why do Zoey trust Isaac more than us? He’s a nerd!” Ed followed Isabel’s example.

“Wow, thanks for the stellar opinions about me,” Isaac deadpanned, then he froze. Oh God, he’d been spending too much time with Max.

“Hey, Zoey mentioned a… cassette? Did I get it right?” Isabel stared expectantly at Isaac. At his nod, she continued, “Right, so this cassette… what does it do?”

“It plays music when you put it into a player,” Isaac told her.

“So it plays this _Hush, Little Baby_ song?”

“A recording of it, yeah.”

“Show me! I want to learn that song.”

“Ooh, me too,” Ed perked up immediately. “Just in case Max needs some help.”

Isaac took the player from his bag and pressed the _play_ button. Immediately, the voices singing the song sounded in the air, and Isaac automatically joined, though his voice was far softer compared to the recording. Both Ed and Isabel listened attentively to it, nodding and tapping along as the song went. After repeating the song two times, both started to hum and muttered the words of the song, slowly but surely learning the song.

Unfortunately, they were a little too eager to learn for Isaac. By the fifth replay, he groaned. “Guys, come on, we need to sleep.”

“But we haven’t memorized the song yet!” Ed protested.

“Tomorrow’s a day off!” Isaac nearly wailed. His fatigue was beginning to wear him down. “You can learn it tomorrow.”

“Three – no – four more replays!” Isabel bargained.

“Two, and that’s it,” Isaac grumbled.

“Fine, two.”

And that was how they fell asleep; among friends and lulled by the sweet recording of an old lullaby, with the player sitting snugly in Isaac’s hand. The room was a mess after their pillow fight and pillows and blankets were all over the place, but they were comfortable in their beds and the song gave them a sense of safety.

“Really hope nothing will wake us up…” Ed muttered as he pulled a blanket over him. Isabel mumbled an incoherent agreement and Isaac just nodded, though he knew Ed couldn’t see it.

The last melodies of the song echoed in the room as sleep finally claimed them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm done writing this! Huzzah!
> 
> I've actually started writing a few days ago, but then tragedy struck and forced me to postpone writing... I caught a cold. I'm all fine now, thankfully, though my throat still feel kinda scratchy.
> 
> Some parts took me a long time to write, like Zoey's letter. Because, how old is she? Seven, eight? How do kids her age write things? It was hard trying to figure that out, and in the end I just kind of went 'screw it'.
> 
> I don't know where this part would fit in the whole timeframe of Hogwarts AU, but it has to be early enough in the game, so I'm thinking maybe sometime after Christmas holiday in the kids' first year or early second year? Yeah, that sounds good enough.


End file.
